God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love. 1 John 4: 17-18

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3: 5-6

 One of my favorite places in Texas is Enchanted Rock.  The top is fairly smooth and is dome shaped but there are lots of boulders as well.  You can take a more leisurely way up to the top that is not so challenging or you can rock climb or you can go bouldering.  It can be rather challenging trying to choose the right path as you climb to the top.  And I love it!  I made the photograph on the left of my “big” kids when they were not so big.

I used to camp there with my youth group in Texas.  On one of those trips, I was bouldering with some of the teenagers and we were working our way back down.  We came to a place where we had to jump from one boulder down to another.  Fear gripped me.  As I looked down, I could clearly see there was no way I would land on the rock without tumbling down the mountain side.

The teenagers who were with me of course were fearless and began to jump down one by one while I watched them.  I was thinking “ Good for them!  They are all crazy and don’t care if they die!”  And fear gripped me even more deeply.  A couple of the boys were still up top with me and they were encouraging me.

“You can do it Terry!  It’s easy.  It will be ok!”

“Oh no it won’t.  I’m looking at it and I can see that I will not land on that rock.  I can’t do it!”

But you know what?  Those kids loved me.  And they were determined to help me get over my fear  – to keep it from crippling me—so that we would ALL get down safely and together.  It took a little coaxing, encouraging, prodding, and hand holding but I did finally jump.  And I landed in the right spot just like they had told me I would, had shown me I would, and had loved me until I did.  And together we continued until we reached the base of E-Rock.

Fear is a hard thing.  Sometimes it is rational.  Sometimes it is irrational.  But when you are in the midst of fear, it is real.  It is scary. And it is hard to get loose.  It can be hard to think about anything else when you are wrestling with fear.

I think God understands our fears.  I KNOW God is bigger than our fears.  But again, when I am really afraid, I forget that God is bigger than my fear.  That’s why I love this passage from 1 John.  When we take up this life of love: love of God through Jesus Christ, we live in God and God lives in us.  And that love “has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free”.

If you’ve every had a toddler or a puppy you know that when they have the run of the house, it affects everything.  And it changes where you place things and how you go about navigating in your home.  Shall I say “baby gate”?

First John says, “there is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. “  Did you get that?  Well-formed love banishes  fear!  And trust is an important part of that journey.—even when it makes no sense in our minds.  When I was standing there wanting to jump and gripped by fear, I had to trust those teens.  I had to trust them and their love and their faith as well.  I think trust can be just as scary as fear and I wrestle with both of them.

Trust leads to life.  Fear ultimately leads to death.  Because if we are afraid to love God, love can not live in us.  God can’t live in us.  And love will not have the run of the house.  I’ve had small kids and active puppies and I definitely wanted to contain them.  But  love?  I want love to invade every space and wreck my home!  I want to trust God to drive fear from my life even if it is one little jump at a time.

If you are standing on a big rock or feel like you are on a cliff and have nowhere to go; if you can’t find your way out of your fear, know that we have a God who loves you so completely and so deeply that there is a way out of that fear.  It is hard to trust, especially if you feel like your situation has gone on forever and there is no way out.  But if you do, you won’t regret it.  I haven’t so far.